Clarisse La Rue and Chris Rodriguez - the beginning
by Ell159
Summary: "Fine. Drown and wallow in your self-pity. See if I care." she solely turned around, no fists, no punches, no threats, no nothing. Just her hands in her pockets and a gait so untroubled and relaxed, that it looked like she wasn t at his throat just a moment ago.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Hey, there! Soooo, this is the first story that I have written about ChrisxClarisse, actually one of the first stories that I have ever written so please be nice! And if there are any mistakes do tell me, because English isn`t my mother language, I`ll correct them right away! Anyway I hope you enjoy!

**P.S.:** There is a liiitle violence in this chapter (and is mentioned a few times), but let`s admit it, Clarisse`s middle name is violence :D If anybody has a problem with it I`ve marked it with **WW **so you can skip it if it bothers you.

**P.S.S.: **I would recommend "Greg Laswell - And Then You". I spend almost half of the story listening to it.

* * *

Clarisse was kicking and maiming all the dummies in sight, pretending that they were those annoying little twats from the Apollo cabin. She cut a head, slashed chests and a few stomachs until there was almost nothing whole left from the dummies.

For a few moments she just stood there and stared at them, contemplating on weither she should cut them apart even more than they were or to leave some for her relatives. She grabbed one of the spare spears, tossed it in the air a few times to feel the weight of it, then threw it at the dummie in center whose head was barely attached to the torso and hit it square in the heart. **WW** Were it a real person he/she would have stared blankly and would have fallen backwards to never move again. Clarisse pretended that it was Lee Fletcher, the little runt who she despised the most of them all. If she lacked self-control his tongue would have gone missing the first time he dared insult her. **WW**

She sighted and decided that her brothers and sisters deserved to get their anger out on the dummies too, so she left the arena and went running. The forest was the only place where there were less demigods to annoy the hell out of her. Her feet took her there and she increased her speed as if she were on the Olympics or something.

Clarisse felt the burn in her muscles after half an hour of running around like a crazy shit all over the forest. She met only two campers, one of them being a son of Athena, who wisely made way for her to pass and the other one was her half-brother Sherman. The moment they saw each other, big grins formed on their faces. They sprinted towards each other, jumped just before they collided and grabbed the other`s shoulders , literally switching the places in which they were standing a second ago, only they did that in the air and landed on all fours.

"Sis." Sherman`s grin grew even bigger if that was possible.

"Bro." Clarisse said, grin turning into a smirk. As much as the other campers thought they knew the Ares cabin, they were so wrong. The children of Ares were more like a pack, a family, than like a bunch of boys and girls that were just way too violent than anybody wanted them to be. When in public they solely communicated with each other through their eyes and body language, one or two insult thrown at a brother or a sister, but that was just to keep the reputation going.

They were protective of one another, especially the older ones. They were the only cabin that wasn`t lead by the oldest member, but by Clarisse, a girl at that, that was able to unite a whole bunch of hyperactive killing machines. The girl part does sound unusual, because the Ares cabin hasn`t been lead by a girl for more than half a century.

"Usually you`re beating the shit outta dummies. Soooo, why are you running?" Sherman knew her way too well and was one of the oldest, only a few years older than Clarisse herself. He raised an eyebrow.

"If I continued, there wouldn`t have been anything left for you and the others when you went later, now would it?"

"Touché." they both got up and cleaned the pine needles from their jogging pants. "I should be used to it by now, but it`s still annoying me." he shook his head, both knowing very well what he was talking about.

"Yeah… sucks big time. And people wonder why we train all the freakin` time or why we`re all growly." right, they were talking about that thing that every Ares kid got a lotta bit extra than the other demigods - anger. Sure, it sounds stupid when you hear it, but it`s way more serious, because if they don`t train the anger out, every moving thing in camp would be beat to a bloody pulp, then Mr. D. will turn them into plants or something, it`s going to depend on the mood that he`ll be in, and it won`t end good for anybody.

That`s why most of the time the arena is unavailable for other campers than Ares`s children. The anger is like a burning ball of energy inside of them and the ADHD isn`t helping one bit. It`s a frenzy growing inside of you and if you don`t take care of it… well, let`s just say that it won`t be pretty.

**WW**

A few years back, one of their brothers beat a Hermes kid, just because he wanted to say something and the other punk didn`t let him. That was only at the age of 8. After that incident nobody dared to stand near them in fear of getting the same beating. Sure, their brother had to do the dishes for five months, feed the Pegassi and clean after them for the same period of time and nobody ventured to make a joke out of it, even behind his back, but the Hermes kid didn`t get out of it that easily too – the one month stay in the infirmary wasn`t pleasant at all, because the ambrosia and nectar couldn`t mend that many broken bones, even the children of Apollo had a hard time healing him.

**WW**

"I gotta go, see ya. " her brother flew past her, taking her out of her thoughts. She moved her head to the right and the left, then continued running for another hour.

After that Clarisse hit the showers, but on her walk back to her cabin, she was stopped by Chiron. Typically. There was a new kid and Chase wasn`t around, due the fact that blah, blah, blah, so she had to do It instead. Good thing it wasn`t summer, because she`d be more pissed from the heat. November was nice, but the wind was cold and she felt chills going down her spine. There was a towel on her shoulders, with one hand roaming through her wet hair, in a poor attempt to dry it.

Clarisse was wearing an oversized "You and whose army?" red hoodie and camouflage pants with her favorite knee high combat boots. She was still trying to dry her hair when she entered the Big House with a sigh. In front of the fire place there was a tall hispanic boy who didn`t lack muscle mass unlike the rest of the stuck up idiots there. He was probably two or three years older than Clarisse when she was 11 at the time.

The boy didn`t even seem to hear them come in and Mr. D was nowhere in sight. He was just staring at the fire with clenched fists.

"Chris." Chiron murmured softly and slowly went next to the boy, bringing a hand on his shoulder. The boy did not react. The centaur turned him, so he faced her. "Clarisse, this is Chris Rodriguez. Chris, this is Clarisse La Rue, she will show you around."

Clarisse momentarily stopped moving and gave Chiron her "are you kidding me?" look. Then she gestured at the door in the left, that leaded to another room. He followed her with a sigh.

"How am I supposed to show the place around to a kid _that_ depressed, Chiron? I`m not good with emotions or with chick flick stuff and _you know that_." her right eye twitched.

"Child, right now he needs company, and I don`t think that anyone else of your siblings will be better at this. And do not mention the Hermes cabin for a last resort. The poor boy just lost his mother. Be gentle with him, Clarisse." he turned around and left the room, leaving a pissed off Clarisse behind him, with her hands raised up in the air in a "What the hell, man?" gesture. She gripped the towel around her neck and growled, not even acknowledging the fact that the hispanic boy had lost his mother. She had stopped listening after the "right now he needs your company".

When she stepped out of the room, the boy, Chris, was still in the same place where they left him. Something in her clicked and she stopped scowling. For the first time in her life she didn`t know what to do. When she broke her arm for the first time, she knew that she had to find her mother. Years later, when her mum told her that she had to go to Camp Half-Blood, because it was too dangerous for a little kid on her own and that she wasn`t able to protect her own daughter, Clarisse knew that she had to hug her, to comfort her, even though hugs weren`t her thing, but the tears in the older woman`s eyes made her do it. When her brother lashed out on the Hermes kid, she knew that they all had to be there for him, to tell him that it was okay, to do other cheesy stuff, so the pood kid doesn`t feel that bad, because he was their little brother, he was family.

"So..uh, Chris." he blinked and actually looked at her. His hair was all spiky and black, his eyes were brown, but from the fire to his right it looked like they were gold-ish. The dark circles under them made them look darker. He was in a disheveled green shirt with long sleeves and dark jeans that were too loose for him. The sneakers he was wearing were already good for nothing and winter was less than a month away. He had the longest lashes Clarisse had seen in her life. Even the Aphrodite peasants couldn`t match them with all the tons of mascara they usually wore.

"Clarisa." he said quetly, abrely above a whisper, as if to reply to her when she said his name. This was getting a lot like Tarzan and Clarisse had no intention of being Jane (yes, she had watched Tarzan, but that was _solely_ because of her mother).

"Nuh-uh. CLAH-REES. With an "S". Like a snake that`s about to bite the death outta you. Or starngle you ." she corrected him and started drying her hair again.

"Clarisse." he said, but this time with a stronger voice that had already mutated.

"That`s right, punk. Now, follow me." Clarisse turned halfway on her heels and shook her head a few times, but wasn't satisfied, because the hair was still wet.

"I`m older than you." Chris said, but followed her anyway with his hands now in his pockets. Clarisse had the feeling that those jeans were about to fall from his hips, which were making Aphrodite`s children look fat. Heck, he made them look like the little shits they were, but nobody saw, because of all the make up.

"I don`t care. Wanna hear it in spanish? _No me importa_." she didn`t turn around to see his reaction, but the the atmosphere between them changed to something that was a little better than the depression that leaked out of the kid.

"Aren`t you going to get sick with that wet hair and that biting wind?" he sounded genuinely concerned.

"Been there, done that, nothing new." of course she had done it thousands of times before. There was one time she had pneumonia, because she jumped in the Lake in the middle of winter, on behalf of her stubborness and the fact that she didn`t want to lose to an Apollo runt.

She gestured at the srawberry fields.

"I take you know what those are." he nodded she showed him around, did a good and loooong walk and by the end of it she barely resrained her yawns.

"What`s in the forest?" Clarisse raised an eyebrow - only the Demer kids and her sublings were interested in it (and ocasionally some of the Hermes kids that were hiding after a prank of fear for their lives). She showed him Thomas`s cave and Zeus`s fist. On the way back, he stopped in the middle of the forest. And just stood there for ten minutes. _Whitout moving an inch._

Clarisse`s right eye twitched again and her hands folded in the towel so she didn`t strangle Rodriguez. She took a deep breath and turned around.

"What is it?" she didn`t keep the venom out of her voice. Then again, why would she? He was just another demigod that will end up hating and fearing her, why should she treat him like a human being when they all end up loathing the Ares cabin? So what if he`s traumatized, almost everybody in this camp has had some sort of a trauma, mommy issues or daddy issues (though the mommy issues were a rarity).

Clarisse herself has had a trauma and do you see her being all depressed and shit? Nope. Is she looking like her mother has died in a fire or-

Oh.

Shit.

Chiron`s words came back in her head.

_"The poor boy just lost his mother."_

She looked up at the sky and growled softly.

Why coulnd`t have she been born without any emotions or compassion or understanding for that matter?

By the way he looked at the fire in the Big House, like it was responsible for every shit in life, and like he was thinking :"Prometheus, you little shit, I`m gonna hunt you down and make you suffer more than you have ever suffered in your whole life. And considering the fact that you are probably one of the most tortured bastards in existence, it will be profoundly terrifying." ...

"Nothing." he drew past her, didn`t even have a problem getting them out of the forest when everybody almost got lost if they hadn`t been here more than a few times.

When he didn`t stop the moment he got out of it, Clarisse gritted her teeth, cought up with him and hit the back of his right knee. When he fell to ground, he turned towards her with a glare matching hers.

"What the hell is your problem?" he hissed poisonously.

"_You_, you little prick! What, you think that after you have lost-" she stopped herself and balled her hands in fists.

"What?" he stood up and towered over her. "When I have lost what? Do you even know what it`s like to lose your mother, the only family you have ever had? Huh? Do you KNOW WHAT IT`S LIKE?" he screamed at her and she took it. "Do you know what it`s like to see her dying, to see her taking her last breath in front of you, IN YOUR ARMS? DO YOU KNOW, HUH?!" their noses were almost touching and if he were somebody else Clarisse wouldn`t have left an unbroken bone in his body. She knew how he felt, besides she had used her siblings for punching bags after "the incident". But if he dared touch her she wasn`t going to restrain herself.

He took a deep breath and a horrified expression covered his face. He took a step back, his legs gave out and he fell right afterwords. The boy started hyperventilating, hands coming to his throat as if he could actually open it and let the oxygen in.

Clarisse realized he was having a panic attack and crouched in front of him. She tried shaking him, but that didn`t help.

"CHIRON!" she yelled, the centaur knew how to deal with this. But she didn`t.

"Hey! Hey, yo, look at me, man!" she tried, knowing that she sounded as stupid as Apollo`s kids. "Rodriguez! Chris! Look at me, dammit!" nope, nothing. This was bad. And Chrion was nowhere in sight.

"CHIRON, COME ON! HE`S GONNA DIE HERE!" she yelled again and slapped him.

Chris had covered his ears, still hyperventilating the tan skin getting pale, his whole body shivering. That made Clarisse panic. And a panicked Clarisse was something you did not want to experience.

She did the best thing she could – punched him. He fell backwards with a hiss. She extended her hands as if he was a metal piece and she was Magneto and could make him sit again. No such luck.

"Clarisse!" Chiron was going towards them with a frown.

Then Chris snapped out of his panic attack and growled.

"What is your problem?" he shouted every word slowly and lunged at her.

**WW**

He had her wrists on each side of her head, his mouth a big snarl. Clarisse hit him in the stomach with her knee, then smashed her head against his and a second time, until he let her go. She got up, Chris right after her, again trying to corner the girl. She hit his collarbone with her elbow, brought her left fist first in the middle of his chest, then she stricked his stomach. When he hunched over she grabbed his head and hit it in her knee thrise. By the time she tried to do it a fourth time Chiron was five feet from them.

"Clarisse." his voice calm and at the same time angry, honestly she didn`t know anybody except him who can manage that. She let him go, but he hit her in the face. "Chris Rodriguez! Clarisse La Rue!" both of them froze with their fist in the air and ready to hit once again.

Chris had blood dripping from his not ususally croocked nose, which meant that it was broken, a bruise was already forming under his left eye and temple. Clarisse spat out blood like it was a daily thing, which for her was.

"You hit like a five year old." she smirked evily at him, daring him to charge her again. In reply Chris fixed his broken nose in place, not even flinching and cracked his neck.

**WW**

"Just because you`re a girl doesn`t mean that I won`t-"

"Enough!" Clarisse`s smirk grew bigger. "Both of you!" he added. "I don`t know who started it, but I know how it will end. " the centaur`s voice boomed. "Clarisse, take him to the infirmary. And no more fighting or you know the consequenses, child!" Clarisse made a face at the last sentence.

"But, Chiron, the little prick-"

"Watch you tongue, young lady."

"The little _drama queen_ here thinks that just because he`s had a trauma means that he knows everything of everything, and during the whole "Do you know how it feels?!" speech he had a panic attack. I punched him, so he could snap out of it, then when I saved his life he charged me and I fought back."

"Ooooooh, and how did you _save_ my life? By _punching me in the face_? Wow. I`m so gratefull. It was _heroic_." the boy`s voice was dripping with sarcasm. He bowed down, mocking her.

"Yes, you were going to die, you little idiot! You were _hyperventilating _and it was a matter of time untill you died from lack of air or a heart attck." she growled.

"You know such a hard word? I`m impressed!" Clarisse just stared at him and pursed her lips a little bit.

"Fine. Drown and wallow in your self-pity. See if I care." she solely turned around, no fists, no punches, no threats, no nothing. Just her hands in her pockets and a gait so untroubled and relaxed, that it looked like she wasn`t at his throat just a moment ago.

And Chris stared after her, his eyes wide open and mouth set in an "o" shape. He felt something in him shift, he… didn`t know what to feel, how to feel right now or if he did all this so he can feel again.

* * *

One month later she still avoided him, more like acted like he didn`t exist and he didn`t even see her anymore anywhere. His old habbits stirred again. He barely talked, ate just enough for his body to function without big problems, he slept almost all day and with his actions he made the kids in the Hermes cabin worry _a lot_, thus getting Chiron called.

Chris told him the same thing he was telling everybody.

"I`m fine." he answered the centaur tiredly, turning so he faced the wall and his back was towards the elder. He felt fine, just didn`t want socialize with anybody. What was the point anyway? Even if he was a… how did they put it? Ah… demigod, they`ll kick him out sooner or later. He preffered not having any ties towards anybody. And might as well get his body prepared for all the hungry days to come afterwards. Yeaaaah…. He had a strange logic, but he was ususally right. And for all he knew these kids might as well be serial killers or he was just hallucinating and any moment now he would wake up in a ditch, his limbs frozen from the cold. Yep, hallucinating suited him better.

He heard a sigh. The centaur murmured something to the others, but Chris couldn`t hear it properly. He fell asleep shortly after that.

* * *

Chris woke up to the sound of voices that were near him.

"So you`re saying that he hasn`t moved from that bed for three days?" it was a girl and it was familiar.

"Y-yeah." somebody squeaked the answer out.

"What about the bathroom? He can`t pee in bed. Or -yeah, TMI." she sighted. "Maybe his bladder isn`t working well or something. Does he talk?"

The other kid probably shook his head, because she continued talking.

"Ah, so Sleeping Idiot desided to wake up."

"_How the hell?"_ thought Chris.

"Everybody out. NOW!" there were fast footsteps and the sound of a door closing. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him so he was on his back. "What the fucking hell do you want to prove, Ramirez?"

"Rodriguez." he hissed at the light that tried to make him blind.

"Whatever." she held out a bowl for him. He frowned and sat up slowly, but his sight blurred for a second and when he looked in the bowl he saw that it fas full of mushrooms and carrots. He raised an eyebrow.

"They`re high in proteins and we don`t know for how many days you haven`t eaten." she glared at him when he opened his mouth. "The day Chiron found you you didn`t eat, the shrimps here say that you haven`t eaten properly sinse you came here and Gods know how starved you look. You could have not eaten before you came here too. So." she gave him the big bowl. "eat."

"If you are _soooo _afraid that I haven`t eaten for five days, why mushrooms and carrots and not... meat for example? " he could see her jaw and lips clench when he said "five days".

"Your stomach has shrunk and if you eat a big amount of food you`ll throw it up." she said in a "duuuuuuuh" tone. "And these here are like you chew on something, but you swallow nothig, so – I`m not repeating the protein stuff again."

"What if I don`t like mushrooms?"

"Then I`m gonna shove them down your throat and watch you make funny and agonized faces while you swallow them." the glint in her eyes told him that she wasn`t kidding even one bit.

"Good point."

* * *

That same day he went to dinner. He ate a little, as much as he wanted to attack the meat and leave nothing for the others, he didn`t know if he`ll actually throw up. He felt Clarisse`s gaze on him and when he looked at the girl, her eyes were narrowed like she was wondering weither she should strangle him or cut him in half. Or maybe something including much more blood and pain. Then her face changed to "What the hell are you doing?". He realised that his eyes were widened, but at the same time he was frowning and his mouth was downwards probably like in the animations.

He noticed that every single one of Ares` kid was looking at him with the same expression as Clarisse`s. It was kinda funny because even those whose backs were turned to him were gazing at him and some of them had their forks halfway to their mouths. It was hilarious and he wanted to laugh in their faces, but from all the horror stories he had heard he decided not to do so.

"Dude, I don`t know what you did, but that`s the quietest I`ve ever heard them." said Connor, one of the twins, which everybody had a hard time telling apart, told him in an amazed voice. Just as he said that Ares`s children returned to their normal behaviour.

Though he caught Clarisse`s eyes for a moment, but she looked away, because her brother asked her something. He realized that her eyes weren`t actually brown. They were a mix of colours and depending on her mood a color dominated more than the others. From here he couldn`t quite see the exact one at the moment.

He was brought our of his thoughts when people around him started leaving.

You know, ADHD is a bitch. He had spent twenty minutes thinking about Clarisse`s eyes. TWENTY MINUTES. So he took the big piece of bread that was close to him and brought the hand with bread close to his leg. He made sure that that part of him was in the dark so nobody would see the food in the darkness. It seemed that everybody was headed somewhere, because every camper went right. They were headed to a big building – the Amphitheater.

He stood there for a moment and crouched, waited for them to get away and his feet took him in the forest. Chris breathed in the fresh air with a big inhale. He continued until he was deep in it and sat on a big root while resting his back on the three. He could see a few stars shining in the dark sky, but the rest remained unseen, because of the branches.

The bread was freshly baked and the crusts were crunchy. It melted in his mouth and he fought the urge to moan like a prostitute. There were foods that he loved more than any human being. And bread was one of them. He could eat bread and never get tired of it, like EVER. He`s tried. But everybody got very worried when two months passed so he started eating other things than bread. Good days, good days.

Aaaaaaaaand since he was thinking like that it meant that he wasn`t going to get any sleep tonight. Way too hyperactive for that. Besides the last two days he was probably awake only for an hour or something. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn`t hear the light footsteps.

"That`s my tree, dumdass." Clarisse said. Her hands were crossed in front of her chest.

Great. He and his luck. Of course.

"I don`t see your name on it." he shot back.

"Actually, it`s right behind you." Chris`s left eye twitched and he looked at the tree behind him with lightning speed, cracking his neck in the process. And indeed there, right where his head rested was the name"Clarisse La Rue". He had to admit that he was way more pissed at her now than when he met her. It was like she triggered something in him and she was well aware of that.

He tried standing up, but her hand on his chest bone stopped him.

"Sit."

"I`m not a dog." he fought the urge to reply with something offensive.

"No, you`re a guinea pig. " she sat right next to him, elbows on her knees, hand clutching the other. She was staring right ahead with furrowed brows, lips tight. Clarisse paid him no attention.

So Chris took the chance to take a good look at her.

She was skinny, her cheekbones with the hollow under them, her jaw was well prominent and sharp. The hoodie she was wearing was like a bag over her body and her collarbones stood out, if he looked closer he could see her sternum. Her wrists were delicate, but he remembered the forse and power she punched him with. What he wondered was how she wsn`t freezing only in the big hoodie without a jacket.

But if he thought about it she wasn`t this bony when he first met her. And when he actually went outside or to dinner she wasn`t there during the past month. Maybe she went somewhere? Or on some sort of a mission? What could possibly make her change so drastically like that?

"If you don`t stop staring at me, I`ll take your eyes out and serve them to you for dinner."

She wasn`t even looking at him!

"Soup or Lasagnia? Although I haven`t tried either of them with eyes, there`s a first thing for everything, right?" her eyes widened a bit and her head turned so she could lock her brown pools with his darker ones. She looked… amazed.

"What? Hasn`t anybody ever talked back to you?" he laughed.

Her expression didn`t change. Then she laughed too.

And to be honest Chris thought that if she laughed it would be from the misery and agony of poor and lost souls. But this was… this was charming, cute actually. Her neck and collarbones bared even more due the fact that her face was facing the sky.

Yeah, well, okay, maybe he had a thing for necks and collarbones. And even if he did she was way too young, just a little pipsqueak. Beisdes she hated his guts.

"How old are you?" he heard his own voice and wished he hadn`t said it out loud. A filter between the brain and mouth was all he wanted sometimes.

She stopped laughing as if she realized what she had done. Her face became the stoic mask like before while her eyes narrowed.

"Eleven." she swallowed. "You?"

"Thirteen."

For a few minutes silence took over.

"What happened? To you I mean." the shocked look appeared on her face again. She swallowed and looked at the ground.

"My mother."

"Your—" Chris stopped himself and shivered. The fatal night came back to him, but he shook his head and willed it to go away. "What—Is she okay?"

Clarisse sat back and looked at the branches of all the trees around them.

"It`s none of your buisness." she clenched her mouth and stood up abruptly. Then her head turned to the left and she ran.

"Hey!" Chris ran after her, but the girl was faster than him. He lost her after a few minutes. "Clarisse!" he had heard that there were monsters lurking here, the Hermes cabin constantly wondering weither they should go in the forest, but the fear almost always stopped them. He didn`t know how they looked, how strong they were and Clarisse was on her own, an eleven year old that was controlled by her emotions.

"Clarisse!" he heard a loud snarl that made him stop. "CLARISSE!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author`s note:** Thank you so much, guys! I didn`t think that anybody would actually like this fic. I just started it , because I had this idea in my head and decided to try and do something out of it.

Anyway, enjoy.

* * *

Chris panicked and tried to find the source of the snarl. If he didn`t see the thing soon he was going to have a panic attack. And that wasn`t good. See, he had this little problem – he was afraid when he couldn`t see the thing that was a threat to him. His vision and hearing were his best friends (more the vision than the hearing). He liked to see what was going to attack him. If he didn`t – let`s just say that the last time it didn`t end well for the burglar.

So he closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. The other campers had said that the most common monsters were the harpies and dragons. Let`s not forget those "gigantic" ants that everybody was terrified of, "M" something something. Ah, Myrmekes! Who was stupid enough to be afraid of ants? Whatever.

What else?

What else?

Nothing was coming in mind.

SHIT.

The work "SHIT" was glowing like a neon sign in his head.

He opened his eyes when he felt the air around him go warm. And there, right in front of him, stood a dragon with it`s mouth open and something red was showing from it`s giant maw. Fire.

Chris threw himself to the left in the last moment and if he was a second late he would have been turned into a giant human crisp. Yummy, for the monsters. When he looked behind him he could see the fire – he had never realized that it could be this red, like blood or like melting metal.

Suddenly he was alert, his ADHD finally kicking in. He ran in the direction where he last saw Clarisse. The thing was faster than it looked, but the trees were zigzagging and the space wasn`t enough for it. He didn`t dare look back, knowing himself well enough that he was going to be fascinated with it`s eyes or something. Yeah, they had cool eyes!

At least the dryads weren`t this deep in the forest. That was a plus.

But he didn`t know where to lure the dragon – the Lake was way to far away and he would endanger everybody else. So the only thing that popped in his head was to take it as deeper in the forest as he could. At least he brought danger upon himself without even wanting every day and everybody in his old neighborhood wanted him dead (with a few exceptions, but sometimes even his friends couldn`t bare him, Fernando and Manuel were like his older brothers, well older brothers who let him smoke and most of the time it was their fault that he got into fights, but brothers whatsoever) so he was an expert with running away, not that he didn't know how to defend himself. Nope, that`s what kept him alive until now. Until he met _el dragón._

Chris turned right and hid behind a large tree. A big branch caught his eye. He took it from the ground and used the Swiss army knife he stole from Travis Stoll. He sank the knife three inches from the right end, just a few centimeters from the point where he would have cut the branch in two, then he moved the knife sharply towards the right end. And there you have it – a wood spear. Just so you know it`s not as easy as it sounded, he`s had a lot of practice with Fernando when they fished in the river. Only they didn`t do it with fish hood, but with spears.

He then stepped out of his hiding place and threw the spear right between the dragon`s eyes (and they actually were pretty cool).

"_Sweet mother of flying fuck, I`m going to fucking die!"_ he screamed in his head, his mother was going to pull his ear if she heard him swearing. "_"Christopher, you watch your tongue in front of me, young man!"_" Chris smiled a little at the old memories, but realized that instead of killing the dragon he only made it angrier.

It opened it`s big mouth again, fire peaking from the inside of it`s throat.

"_Aquí,__ imbécil, aquí!"_ he saw Clarisse in his left and sprinted towards her.

"Jesus! I`ve never been so happy to see you!" he said, trying to hug her, but she hit him in the ribs.

She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him with her. The dragon roared and if Chris could speak it`s language it was probably a curse that couldn`t be translated in English.

She lead him toward a tree and started climbing it, he followed her.

"You do know that that thing is at least ten times taller than us and that climbing this tree will just make things easier for it."

"Shut it, before I kick you and you break your neck when you hit the ground! And it`s all your fault!" she looked down at him, her eyes dark with anger.

"How come that _thing_ is _my_ fault?" he almost didn`t fall while screaming back at her.

"If you didn`t scream my name like a little girl, none of the monsters would have paid attention to you." suddenly her face was less than an inch from his. Only hers was upside down, because she was hanging from a branch.

It kinda sorta reminded him of Spiderman and he wanted to kick himself for even thinking that. Chris hoped that it was dark enough that she didn`t see his red face. He could feel it heat up and continued climbing.

He realized that they might not make it, that they might die, that thing might kill them. His head shifted so he could look at the girl in the upper branches. She looked ahead, the wind was sending her hair in every direction, her brows pulled together, eyes concentrated. Her left hand was around the tree to keep her balanced while the other slipped in her knee-high combat boots from where she took out a big knife. It was made of celestial bronze, one of the kids in the Hermes cabin had explained it to him. That way they only hurt monsters, but the mortals would not be harmed, just freaked out, but that depended on what they saw or what the mist let them see.

"Here it comes." Clarisse muttered. She didn`t seem scared, not even one bit, her frame was a little hunched, like she was about to lunge at the dragon. "Oi, big and ugly!"

The dragon snarled and bared it`s teeth.

"I don`t think that that`s a good idea, Clarisse." he grabbed her camouflage pants, afraid that she`ll actually jump from this high. He was hugging the tree with his legs and his other hand that wasn`t grasping Clarisse.

"You afraid, you little shit? Huh? Is the poor little dragon afraid of the demigods?" she continued talking like he hadn`t said anything. "Are you gonna run away? What are you gonna tell your siblings? "They were going to beat me up me! I had to run!" COWARD!"

By now the dragon was backing away, but it looked like a bull that was ready to strike.

"When I tell you to jump – jump." Clarisse told him.

"Are you out of your freakin` mind?"

It was about to attack and Chris knew that he was making a funny face again : his eyes were widened, his mouth was open and at the same time it was downwards, plus the fact that he was hugging a tree. Well, you get the picture.

"Jump!" the moment she said that, the dragon tried to kill them with it`s head, but it hit the tree instead of smashing them. In the mean time Chris felt like he was on a rollercoaster, or like he was skiing on a dragon. Clarisse stabbed it with the big knife in the neck and it disappeared in a yellow mist. She fell on the ground like it wasn't 10 meters height. The knife was nowhere in sight.

"You okay?" he just stared at her, finally realizing that this camp wasn`t for normal people, that he wasn`t normal. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! You are so not having another panic attack, you dweeb."

"Who- I`m not having a panic attack!" Chris stood up with his hands balled in fists.

"You`re paler that _Death_." she pronounced the last word slowly.

"That doesn`t even make sense! Death is supposed to be a skeleton, not a—not a freakin` person." he couldn`t believe that he was having this talk with _Clarisse_ nonetheless.

"And the skeleton isn`t white, huh. Oh, I forgot, bones are red, not white. Pshhhhhhhhhh," she waved her hand like a teacher that was dismissing him. "of course bones aren`t white. Why would I even think that?" she made that frowney face with her mouth downwards, like in the cartoons. Screw that. _He was in a freakin` cartoon_.

Then her eyes moved towards the sky.

"We have to go. The campfire songs have probably ended. And if we don`t get back there in time… weeell, let`s just say that it won`t be pretty." Chris was amazed how she could change her moods so quickly. Even he wasn`t that good.

They ran the way back with Clarisse constantly looking left and right for any monsters.

In the end they made it just in time. Chiron threw them a serious look and made Clarisse go with him to the Big House. His hands were crossed in front of his chest and their stride was slow. When they were just on the porch, with one leg on the stairs Clarisse stopped. Her head, which was facing the ground, slowly lifted itself and turned towards the centaur.

"WHAT!?" she bellowed and looked at Chris with a death glare that could kill anything. Really anything. She bared her teeth at him and he was absolutely sure that she was going to skin him alive, but she just went past him, hitting her shoulder in his while doing so.

"What did I do again?" he could see the pity in Chiron`s eyes.

"You did nothing wrong, my dear boy. Go to sleep. We shall talk about this later. I do think that we all need some rest, no?" with that he climbed the stars and went inside the blue building.

"How did this become my life?" Chris wanted to yell at the sky. Buuuuuut Mr. D was going to turn him into a shrub for "disturbing" his sleep. Noooo, thank you.

* * *

"GET UP!"

Chris banged his head in the wall, hit his legs and shoulder in the bed that was in front of him.

"Son of mother freakin`-"

"Watch what you`re going to say, _Rodriguez_." by the way his last name was hissed he immediately knew it was Clarisse.

"_Dios mío,_ what did I doooooo?" when he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that all the campers in the Hermes cabin had their backs against the walls and if he had not just awoken he would have laughed for hours and blackmailed them for eternity because of their terrified faces. Especially Travis and Connor Stoll who had hugged each other as if the world was ending and it was the zombie apocalypse.

Even Luke, the oldest member of the cabin, looked like he was going to run for his dear life any moment now. And he didn`t get scared easily. Although with him, it looked like it was some sort of a… how should he put it… ah, personal fear. Even Chris knew that before he, the little girl from the Athena cabin and another girl that didn`t survive to camp had had a rough life. So to Chris it looked like he remembered a bad memory. But the older teen shrugged the fear away quickly. Like it hadn`t happened.

"Clarisse." the blond stood from his bed and tried to get closer to the pissed off girl. That was before she turned to look at him.

"You get near me and I`ll break your arm in seven places for four seconds." she snarled at him. Everybody knew that she wasn`t kidding. "Rodriguez, out in five. If you`re late you get extra training. Capisce?" and she stormed out without even waiting for an answer.

"What the freakin` hell?" he voiced out the sentence that was in everybody`s head. Luke stared at him. "Don`t look at me! I don`t know anything!"

"You might want to wash before you go outside. And you have four minutes now." the blond said and tossed a clean towel in his direction. "Go."

* * *

Chris could compete with lighting.

He was outside fifty-five seconds before the five minutes were over. His hair was dripping wet, soaking his back and shirt. But at least he was fully awake.

Clarisse probably hadn`t heard him. She was hunched over, elbows on her knees, palms formed in fist where her chin rested.

"Ahem." she jumped and stood up, her back straight. She looked like she had gained a little weight which was _impossible_ only for one night. "You don`t look like a skeleton anymore." at that she raised her eyebrow.

"You still do." she said.

"But- how? You can`t just gain weight for one night!" she rolled her eyes very dramatically.

Clarisse took a little bottle out of her camouflage pants and tossed it at him. It was white with no wrapping and when he opened it it was full of red and purple pills. He looked at them like they contained all the secrets in the universe.

"Magic."

"Huh?"

"They are magical. For cases like mine." she looked like she hadn`t slept, the bags under her eyes were darker and bigger. "But it won`t work for you."

"Why not?" he tossed them back.

"Because, I have insomnia and a higher metabolism and if I don`t eat regularly I`ll lose weight fast. And you..." she put the bottle back in the pocket and started marching towards the Mess Hall without continuing her thought.

"Isn`t it early?" it was almost seven. And breakfast started at eight. For him it was early. One hour of sleep was precious. One hour that was taken away from him.

"Yup."

"We`re gonna train, aren`t we?"

"Yup."

"Chiron made you do it, didn`t he?"

"Yup."

"I`m gonna die, aren`t I?"

"Nope."

"You`re going to ruin me, aren`t you?"

"Yup."

"I`m screwed." he could swear he saw her smile a little bit when she turned to look at him. Or maybe it was that natural evil shimmer in her eyes?

* * *

He wanted to die.

"Get up, punk."

He couldn`t feel his legs and his lungs were giving out. Cigarettes. How could he be so stupid to start smoking cigarettes? _Seriously?_

"I. Can`t. MOVEEEEEEE!" he sobbed and looked like he was going to make snow angels, only there was no snow. But was cold as hell. "My lungs are dying. Have mercy!"

"Not my problem. Do you want to be chased by the harpies? `Cause I can arrange that." he peered at her.

"My Oracle senses are tingling! Oh, my! You`re going to become a psychopathic mass murderer!" he wriggled his fingers in her direction.

"Cute. Now GET UP!"

Chris didn`t bother to move.

"Or do you want ten more miles? Okay, you got `em."

"WHAT? No, no, no, no! I`m up! See? I`m up!" he got up so fast, he got dizzy and started waving his hands around, gesturing while talking. "I`m up!"

For a moment Clarisse looked pleased, but in the next her eyebrows were furrowed again.

_"It`s like the frowning goes with almost every expression she makes."_ Chris thought.

She stepped forward and brought her hand to his forehead. All he could do was stand there like a freakin` idiot with his hands still in the air.

"What? You just paled in second, that`s all." she removed her hand like she was burned and turned around, squatting a few times and doing other exercises to stretch her legs out.

"You might wanna stretch a little bit, because we have two more miles." she said.

Chris shook his head and stretched his arms, ankles and knees. Then stopped when his hands were above his head, palms clasped together.

"Wait- What? Weren`t they five?"

"You`re gonna faint before the third mile." Clarisse answered.

"No, I WON`T!" he was angry and at the same time embarrassed, because his voice was starting to sound like he had lost all the manliness he had. Clarisse stepped three steps back from him.

"C`mon, _girl_, let`s finish the run." she smirked and started without him. Which meant that he had to run faster and harder.

*sigh*

* * *

"Use the shield you idiot! It`s not there to keep you warm!"

"Block!"

"Higher!"

"Not THAT HIGH!"

"How can you be such a loser, loser?"

"You can`t be that pathetic, even Aphrodite`s barbies of children are better than you!"

"Did I tell you that you`re pathetic? You`re PA-THE-TIC."

* * *

And basically that`s how Chris`s first training session went.

"I`m not working with that twat, Chiron!" Clarisse said, pointing a finger at Chris.

The centaur just stood there with his arms crossed against his chest (everybody loved doing that, even Chris couldn`t understand the habit.) looking unimpressed.

"Only Harry Potter characters use the word "twat"." her glare managed to get deadlier. "Not that I`ve read the series! Pfffft!" he waved his hand like he was chasing a fly away.

Clarisse`s mouth was in a thin line.

She was probably going to sass him any moment now. Or Chiron. Naaaah, Chiron didn`t seem like the sassy type. Or did he?

"See? That`s what I`m talking about! His attention span is like a golden fish`s. I prefer his whole cabin, or better yet those little midgets Stolls, but not him!"

Chiron wasn`t moving or saying anything.

"Are we doing the statue game? Oh, I love it!" Chris stood like a flamingo with his thumbs and forefingers glued together in front of his eyes, with his other fingers outstretched so he looked like had one of those stupid party glasses on.

Chiron smiled, but Clarisse was red in the face like she ate chili.

"Clarisse, can I have a word with you?" asked the elder.

"With pleasure." she stormed away towards the Big House, walking like those funny kids in the movies when they were angry – hands balled in fists that were flinging around, shoulders high like she was cold ( but she wasn`t, because who can be pissed off and cold at the same time?).

"Why are you walking like a robot?" Chris yelled and maybe, just maybe her shoulders relaxed a bit.

* * *

"You`re stuck with me, aren't you?"

He didn`t know why, but he felt happy when she came out of the Big House as angry as when she had went inside, because he just knew that she was stuck with him for a little while.

And maybe, just maybe she didn`t mind that much too.

* * *

She didn`t pay any attention to him for the rest of the week. But he did. That day she was in the Arena, sparring with her brothers and sisters while he sat on the ground and watched them (wishing that they didn`t find him). It was like they were in one of those epic movies with loads of explosions, kicking asses, jumping off of buildings and such.

It was fun. Until the moment they finally spotted him.

"Oi, you little shit, what the f-" one of Ares`s sons started, but Clarisse patted his armored chest with the back of her hand and told him something. The guy didn`t seem happy to let him go without a bruise or two, but backed down.

"Rodriguez!" Clarisse yelled out his name and this was the first time Chris paid attention to her accent, she said it like she was spanish like him. He realized that she and her brother that wanted to use him as a punching bag were headed towards him. Crappppp.

"This is Sherman Fortis, my older brother." she said. Sherman smiled cruelly. He wasn`t wearing a helmet, his hair a mess already, like he had just come out of bed, but it looked natural (Chris too had problems with taming his hair). He was tall and muscular, with a sharp jaw like Clarisse`s (it seemed that that was a family trait, because even with the pills she took, her jaw stayed the same – sharp and prominent). The color of his eyes was hazel and they often drifted between blue, green and brown. Small nose and normal sized lips.

He couldn`t understand why everybody called them " the _ugly_ spawns of Ares" when they weren`t ugly at all. Their manners were a different story though. He knew _animals_ with better comportment.

"Uh, hi." he raised his hand and waved at the older male.

Sherman raised an eyebrow.

"Why aren`t you running away with screams and hands in the air? Haven`t you heard what _monsters_ we are?" when he said the word "monsters" his jaw tightened and Chris thought he was mistaking, but he thought he saw the pain that was hiding behind the fires of anger.

"Oh, I have. But I don`t care." the older boy raised both eyebrows with disbelief.

"Listen," Chris sighted. "I know what it`s like. How people think you`re a monster, _diablo_, spawn, freak or whatever you prefer. How they think they know everything about you and blame you for all the shit that happens and how when they _actually see_ you do something good they don`t give you credit for it or act like it didn`t happen. So, yeah, I _don`t_ care."

Clarisse look at her brother with a "I told you so!" look, her arms were crossed in front of her chest again. Every time she did that she was angry or worried, but right now… she looked _proud_.

"_Dream on, Rodriguez, she solely tolerates you."_

* * *

To be honest I really don`t know Sherman`s last or second names (they aren`t even mentioned in the books), so I picked the word "fortis" which in latin means "strong".

Review please! I want to know your opinion and weither or not to continue this story.

And here`s my tumblr if anybody wants to know or something: bluebells-in-the-late-december.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author`s note:** Thank you guys! Very much at that! I`m sorry for the delay, but school interfered an other stuff happened. **Oh, and in this chapter there is a warning for brief mention of past self-harm**. Yeah, anyway, hope you like it! Review, please!

* * *

He started training with them. And the so called "monsters" were almost a better company than the Hermes cabin. At first it was weird on both sides, because he had no idea how to wield a sword and he didn`t know any tactics or tricks, while the other campers looked like was going to throw something poisonous at them – they were always on their nails and if he startled them he always ended up with a knife, spear or sword to his neck.

"Gods! Will you people stop doing that!?" this time it was Sherman who was talking to his half-brother Mark.

Mark was as tall as Sherman, but compared to him Sherman was white like the moon, his skin so tan as if the guy had spent his whole life under the sun. His hair was light brown, his eyes were something between green and gray. Both Mark and Sherman were his age, but had the bodies of twenty-five year olds. And that was depressing.

"The hell do you want?" Sherman rested his sword on his shoulder and gave Chris an unimpressed look.

"Where`s Clarisse?" they raised an eyebrow. "Chiron wants to talk to her about something "urgent". And – no, I don`t know what that thing is." the half-brothers looked between each other and had some sort of a "silent conversation".

"We haven`t seen her today, she wasn`t even at breakfast. Which means that something is wrong." the three of them walked away from the others so nobody could hear them.

"Please, tell me that you`re not gonna gut me just because you think _I_ have something to do with this." Chris sighted.

"It ain`t you. That we know for sure." Sherman`s jaw tightened.

"But _why_?"

"What why, shrimp?"

"Why breakfast? How do you know that it wasn`t me solely, because she wasn`t at breakfast?"

"She-" Sherman cut himself off before he said something of value.

"Yeah, yeah, she told me about the insomnia and that "if she doesn`t eat, she`ll waste away"."

"She did?" the asked in unison. "_Clarisse_ told _you_? When it took her almost a_ year_ to tell us?" their gazes were burning him, making his heart speed up. They were seizing him up like vicious dogs who found an intruder. But the thing that surprised him was that they relaxed a moment after that.

"She always nags us if we don't have breakfast or if we skip _any_ meal. She`s almost the youngest, but she`s like a mother to the whole cabin." Mark started.

"Checking wounds, applying homemade salves that are way better than having Apollo`s pricks healing you."

„Just because she acts like an ass when we`re not in our cabin doesn`t mean that she is one."

"Wait, wait, wait! Just – What the hell? First you act like I`m an actual son of Apollo that`s spying on you and the next you`re all "let`s talk about Clarisse and how she`s the "pack mom" and all". Seriously? How come all of a sudden you trust me so much?" the paranoia was eating Chris alive, because he really didn`t know what to do with the sudden change of attitude. He just got used to the weapons to his throat thing.

The other teens looked taken aback from his outburst and started at him with knowing eyes.

"She trusted you enough to tell you about her condition." Sherman stretched his shoulders and back.

"You`ve gained weight." the hispanic boy did not expect that statement. Loads of unexpected things were happening lately. "That`s good. When you came here you were the thinnest camper here, you know? Even Apollo`s pricks were concerned. And that`s _something_ coming from _those_ bastards."

"Self-centered dipshits." murmured Sherman while he was checking his sword and cleaning it with his shirt.

"Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay."

"Aren`t you gonna ask why we hate them?" Sherman asked him.

"Uh… you just stated it." Chris said slowly, making it sound more like a question.

"I see why she hasn`t done it yet." Sherman smirked and Mark snickered.

"Done what?!" they shrugged. "Done _what_?" his hands were clenched in front of him in a comical way, as if he was holding something invisible to the eye.

"Dunked your head down the toilet." a familiar voice answered and both Sherman and Mark stopped moving. "The public toilet, _Ramirez_." and there goes the accent again. Judging by the way her brothers looked guilty she was probably glaring at them. With crossed arms. Nothing new.

"Well, what? You didn`t do it. It`s like a ritual! And you _ruined_ it." it was like Mark`s personality totally changed – one moment he was stoic and the next he was like a five year old whose little toy was stolen or like the first slice of cake wasn`t for him. He was waving his hands up and down at her as if he couldn`t believe in her existence.

"We`re not a freakin`_ sect_, you dumbass." she answered.

"It`s a ritual! It has been done for _centuries_, literally!"

"Wa- wait a second! Let`s see if I got it right - your cabin has been dunking people`s heads it the toilets for centuries, right? And you" Chris pointed Clarisse. "didn`t dunk mine. So he`s pissed. Pardon, they`re _all _pissed." they nodded. For a moment he stood without moving. "Why didn`t you do it?" Chris looked at her with a funny expression, hands still in the air.

"Do you _want_ me to do it?"

"Wha- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he backed away from her. "Thank you _very_ much, but I have _enough_ shit in my life. I`ll pass."

"But why didn`t you?" Sherman didn`t seem affected of the circus in front of him.

"I don`t think you noticed, but he looked like a walking skeleton with skin over the freakin` bones! I could count his ribs through the shirt he was wearing, for fuck`s sake!"

"So? Aphrodite`s children are the same, even the guys look anorexic. You dunked _their_ heads in the toilets without any problem."

"Naaaaaah, she`s probably waiting for "Capture the flag" so she can do it publically or somethin`. Maybe she already has an evil plan to swipe my existence. Right, Clarisse?" Chris shrugged and the brothers and sister gaped, not expecting him to say something like that.

Chris smiled, shook his head and walked away, feeling the eyes of the other teens on him.

"_You, _moron_! How can you be so stupid, you dumbass! Now not only do you have to let her beat you, but you have to get humiliated in front of the whole camp! Nobody`s gonna leave you alone after that, not to mention sleeping under random trees. They`re never gonna leave you alone, ever, EVER. "_ none of that showed on his "happy face", though Clarisse caught the tense shoulders. _"With normal people the older you get, the smarter you get, but, noooo. You never learn, you stupid… idiot! See? You can`t even curse! And you`re talking to yourself. Yuppie! And the fireworks are everywhere! __ What a freak among freaks._" the last sentence in his mind made his smile falter.

The moment he was out of the arena the smile vanished, his shoulders sank and he stopped.

"_I really am a freak among freaks."_

The brown eyes shot towards the sky.

"Freak Freakish McFreak." he said. "I need a smoke."

* * *

Clarisse turned her head so sharply that her neck cracked.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

Sherman restrained himself from shivering. He had forgotten that she had a tone like that, not being used in over a year. His sister was really pissed.

"Nothing." he was telling the truth. The newbie ended up being good company and he had no problem with the kid. He was just curious over Clarisse`s actions. He didn`t intend to-

"Then why the fucking hell did you do that?"

"Oi, you two-" Mark tried standing between them, but Clarisse raised her sword until the tip was at his throat.

"Stay out of it." Mark turned his eyes towards Sherman who also looked like he had been smacked across the face with a wet rag. "Move." she pushed the tip deeper into the skin.

By now all of their sibling were watching, but didn`t move. There was only one rule in the Ares cabin – don`t interfere with another`s fight. And magically everybody followed it.

"Mark, move before I slit your throat open." he didn`t. The tanned teen caught the blade between his fingers, knowing that one sharp pull from his sister`s side and he was going to end up without fingers.

"I want you to take a deep breath and keep it down for twenty seconds." Mark didn`t want to admit it, but he was worried how this might end up. Of all his brothers and sisters Clarisse was the biggest mystery of them all. She was intelligent, but while in public she acted like a dimwit. The both of them played chess almost every day until one day she just stopped coming to him with the board in hands. She started coming back late from practice and got up early in the morning.

Then she lost weight and black circles formed under her eyes. Her attitude towards the other campers was awful. She beat the crap out of anybody who said a word to her. She wanted to be alone. All the time.

Mark had heard that some of Ares`s children go through phases like those – they don`t want to communicate, get more violent than violent, some even stop talking altogether for an unknown period of time. He didn`t want any of his siblings to go through that. Maybe something had happened and-

Clarisse bared one of her canines, letting go of the sword then she turned around and headed out of the arena.

Mark started after her with the sword still in his hand.

* * *

Chris sighted in relief when he found the Hermes cabin empty. His feet carried him towards his pillow where he knew that a fresh pack of cigarettes was waiting for him. He looked around when he came out of the cabin. Nobody in sight.

He was deep in the forest when he lit his first cigarette.

"Sorry, trees and every living creature that I`m offending right now, but to be honest I don`t care that much." he exhaled through both his nose and mouth while talking. His sleeves were rolled up and the white lines on his arms were very much visible.

"I really miss the old days." he muttered and traced the scars with his free hand.

He really, really, _really_ did. But he promised his mother that he wouldn`t. That`s why he started smoking. Abandoning one addiction to befriend another. Oh, how strong willed he was.

Yeah, well, he wasn`t that weak to start again. He just needed an anchor.

Chris looked at the cancer stick that was held between his fingers and set it on a stone, careful not to start a fire. His eyes tracked the greyish smoke that came out of the tip, like little clouds. From time to time he would take a small drag and exhale it quickly.

He got up and stretched. His shoulders and legs were protesting, but he didn`t give a crap.

Chris took another stone and put it over the other one on the ground, smashing the cigarette. Then he took a deep breath from the fresh winter air.

He did something that surprised him a little.

A cry tore out of his throat. He bared his neck to the biting wind and yelled with all the power he could muster from deep within. If somebody saw him, he probably would have looked like a howling Tarzan, only he had clothes on and his hair wasn`t that long. The howling wolf. The lone wolf.

And he started running, running, running, running until his legs gave up under him and he couldn`t stand. A few branches had slapped him across the face, probably mother nature was avenging him. He fell a few times and in the end he was covered in bruises and cuts even if that wasn`t his purpose, but the tightness in his chest was gone. And he could finally _breathe_.

* * *

Clarisse looked at her reflection in the water. The Lake was still as glass even when the wind was roaring, as if demanding it move. No such luck, though. She was pissed at herself for the lack of self-control. Lashing out at random campers – expectable, lashing out on her own siblings – a big "no, no". Sherman wasn`t at fault even if he doesn`t know when _not_ to press an issue. He couldn`t have known the Hispanic boy`s condition.

But his words echoed in her mind.

""_So? Aphrodite`s children are the same, even the guys look anorexic. You dunked _their _heads in the toilets without any problem.""_

Sherman was right about that one. Why did she make an exception for Chris? Sure he was so skinny and looked so.. breakable, vulnerable, fragile, like an egg shell. But if that was it then she wouldn't have done it to most of the campers who look like kicked dogs when they come to camp. He was different. _His_ "broken" was different. _He_ was different, hell he _stood up_ to her. He treated her like an equal, not regarding the age or gender. Something about him didn`t let her do it. And with time she just forgot that she _had _to.

"Shit." she said. She shouldn`t feel like this. The only exception were her brothers and sisters (and mother). Everybody else was either a peasant or a little shit that didn`t know it`s place. There was no "in between". He wasn`t family. He wasn`t…

She banged her head against the wooden bridge and restrained the urge to curse in _Japanese_. Yeah, she could do that. She knew Spanish, Italian and a little Japanese (Greek didn`t count). But her mother language was a language that she never learned. She didn`t like French at all. Clarisse always hid the fact that she had french ties. Even if she was fifth generation. She preffered russian or bulgarian.

"Big-time shit." she sighted. Everything was way too troublesome for her. Why the heck did she had to be so stupid and become head of the cabin. That way she _actually had to_ communicate with everybody. She wished she was some sort of character from a book or better yet from an anime where everything is funny, even the bloody situations, and she could do anything she wanted.

Reality. Pfffft, who needs it?

"_I`m losing my mind."_

Clarisse tracked the movement of the leaves over the water, wishing for it to rain. Which was never going to happen. Not with the-

"Freakin` barriers." the girl growled and dug the heel of her combat boot in the wood under her feet. They only permitted snow, but not rain. What logic is that?

"Yo." she barely caught herself from flinching. Usually Clarisse noticed when somebody was nearby, that meant that her guard was down.

Sherman watched her with his unreadable eyes, hands in his jean pockets. His jaw was clenching and unclenching while his hair was flowing in the wind. The black hoodie made him look paler than he was.

"What`s got you thinkin`?" that was another thing she and her siblings did – if there was a previous argument, act like it hasn`t happened so you don`t dig your own grave.

He rested his hands against the side of the bridge, eyes on the water. His fingers drummed on the wood.

"System of a Down?" she asked.

"I-E-A-I-A-I-O, I-E-A-I-A-I-O…" Sherman singed and a pleased smile spread across his lips.

"And we light up the sky…" Clarisse joined in, her leg and head bouncing up and down.

"Which one is your favorite?"

"Revenga, Question and A.D.D. , you?" she didn`t look at him, but didn`t stop tapping. Her head continued to move on it`s own.

"Question and Mr. Jack."

"We could totally make the "little shits" play them during the Campfire." the "little shits" being the Apollo cabin.

Sherman stopped moving, then turned slowly so he was facing Clarisse. They both had an evil gleam in their eyes, scary grins forming on their faces.

"Only one itsy-bitsy problem – none of them are here." a voice behind them said.

Chris stood with his hands buried deep in his red hoodie, although his sleeves were rolled up. And he looked like shit. But nobody made a comment.

"The hell are you doin` here?" Sherman raised an eyebrow.

"I was running" the hispanic boy pointed the forest behind him. "and saw you two here. How could I miss this golden opportunity? And better yet imagine them singing "Vicinity Of Obscenity". _"Terracotta Pie, Hey! Terracotta Pie, Hey! Terracotta pie! Banana Banana Banana Banana Terracotta Banana Terracotta Terracotta Pie! Banana Banana Banana Banana Terracotta Banana Terracotta Terracotta Pie!"_" by the time he finished singing the lyrics while sounding like a drowning mouse, Clarisse and Sherman were laughing their asses off. They were smacking the side of the wooden bridge and could barely stand upright.

"C-can`t breathe…" Clarisse managed to say in-between laughter.

"My… stomach…" Sherman hissed while his shoulders were shaking like mad. He bit his lower lip to keep himself from slipping again and losing control, but the picture of the whole Apollo cabin singing "Vicinity Of Obscenity" wasn`t getting out of his brain. In the end they gave up and just laid down on the hard wood, rolling left and right from the laughter.

When they calmed down Sherman looked up at Chris who had somehow managed to stay upright.

"How did you get here?" the "without us noticing" was left unsaid.

"Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey… stuff." Chris waved his hand. "So, you guys going for dinner?"

* * *

"Oi, Rodriguez!" Chris wondered whether to act like he didn`t hear his name, because it wasn`t Clarisse that yelled it. Others didn`t intimidate him the way she did. Oh, well… he already stopped. Might as well listen.

He turned and was surprised to find it was Sherman.

"I wanted to… uh… the arena…" the taller of the two said with his hand scratching his neck. "I shouldn`t have…"

"Dude, it`s nothin`. Seriously." Chris didn`t know how to respond to that. He had expected anything but apologies.

"No it wasn`t. I… I didn`t want it to come out the way it did. And- UGHH! I`m not good with words or shit like that. I just didn`t want to humiliate you or anythin`. Yeah, so…" Sherman avoided his eyes and the hispanic boy saw how his cheeks got redder by the second. He was trying to apologize, probably something that he hadn`t ever done.

"It`s okay, dude. Chill." Chris grinned and clapped the bigger one`s shoulder a few times before removing his hand. "Quit torturing yourself, man." Sherman straightened and returned the grin.

Chris still couldn`t understand why the Ares cabin was hated by everyone. Or maybe it was just that he _understood_ them while the others couldn`t.

* * *

Just to be clear here - I`m not trying to make fun of people who have anorexia or who self harm, nor do I support such things! I don`t want to hurt anybody`s feelings and if I have - I am really sorry. Reviews wanted! Tell me if you like it or if you don`t!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author`s note**: Again, thank you for all of the sweet reviews! **PJoHoOFan **and** The First Maraudette**, I belive you wanted an immediate update – well, here you go! Today was boring and I decided that starting the new chapter would be a good idea, but in the end I completed it too. And I listened to "Block Party - Signs". _A lot _(as in the whole day).

Hope you like it! Review, please! :)

* * *

Clarisse was in one of her moods again.

Sherman stood with hands in his pockets and watched her throw pebbles in the Lake from afar. She was glaring holes in the water and was cracking her knuckles. Other than that there was no indication that she was angry. Her face was an emotionless mask.

"_¿Mis amigos, qué pasa?"_ and Chris was just in time. That kid had some sort of clock or a timer that knew exactly when to step in.

Clarisse threw him a blank stare and continued throwing pebbles. Only this time with more force.

"Why the long faces?" the hispanic boy had gained more weight during the past two weeks and now he was just skinny not skeleton like. His little sister too had gained back her lost weight, but the circles under her eyes stayed there, sometimes they got darker.

"I heard that there`s gonna be a new camper." Chris said with his hands behind his head and face towards the clear blue sky. "How can it be so cold when the sky is so clear?" he murmured.

"It`s winter, you idiot." these were the first words she had said that day. "Of course it`s cold."

"But why does it have to be "I can feel my fingers going numb and I`m afraid they`re gonna break like that Chinese dude from "Pirates of the Caribbean" cold?" " he yawned and sniffed.

"How can you talk that much without taking a breath when you smoke?"

"Wha- you told him?!" Chris was suddenly alert and not so sleepy anymore, firing his "mind daggers" at the girl that did not react.

"That day, on the same bridge that`s riiiiiiiight there," Sherman pointed the wooden bridge. "you remember? When you looked like you were chased by gorillas? Yeah, you reeked of cigarettes. It`s not hard to do the math." he poked at his nails. "Do you have some on you?" the older asked suddenly.

"You smoke?"

"Used to. But I`m desperate right now. It`s not like I`m gonna start again…"

"Pffffffffffft, yeah…. right…" when Chris looked at Sherman he was giving him the puppy-dog expression and looked like a cute Doberman with his head slightly tilted to the right, eyebrows drawn together and eyes shining. "Okay, okay! Jeez…" he threw his hands in the air in mock defeat and left towards his cabin.

"`Atta boy!" Sherman yelled after him.

"You`re not smoking." Clarisse said behind him.

He was just about to turn when he felt the tip of her sword on his lower back. Straightening in an attempt to move away from the weapon, he swallowed.

"Am I clear, _Sherman_?" she whispered in his ear and he could sense the dark aura behind him, nodding a few times. Just in case she didn`t catch it.

"Yes, sir." he sighted in relief when his sister backed away and turned to face her. "Oh, come on, it`s only one or two cigarettes, for fuck`s sake! I`m not gonna start again, it`s just a momentary craving, nothing more. If I`m lying I`ll wear one of Aphrodite`s children`s shirts!" he started whining the moment she was at a safe distance.

Her eyes were narrowed to little slits, calculating the situation.

"Fine. You start smoking I`ll arrange you a neon pink shirt, cyclamen jeans and neon pink Nike`s. End." she said, her face serious.

"Deal." Sherman smirked. Not on the inside though.

"_Shit. Shit. Shit. What the fuck did I just do? We all know that once I start with one cigarette there`s no stopping. Shit. Fuck. Fucking shit. Shitting fuck."_

There was a sudden gust of biting wind.

"_I`m gonna wear pink for the rest of my life."_ his inner side cried.

"Yo, guys, look who I found on the way!" Chris shrieked. He was dragging a blonde kid with him. It was glaring daggers at Chris, but the hispanic boy didn`t seem to notice.

"This is Will! He`s the new camper I`ve been talkin` about." he looked so proud of himself. But his smile disappeared when he felt Will`s arm spasm while he was trying to compose himself. His fingers were squeezing and loosing, jaw clenched even when his mouth was open.

"Sorry, dude." Chris let go and stepped away with his hands in front of him.

The kid instantly calmed down, the anger leaving his face. He was wearing a grey "Awolnation" hoodie, sleeves rolled up. His arms were bruised and dirty, the knuckles bleeding. There was a tremor in his legs. The jeans he wore were missing several chunks of fabric. His face was also covered in bruises, a few large cuts on his jaw, cheekbones and one big plaster was covering most of his left cheek. Blonde matted bangs hid his forehead, but another large cut was visible on his left temple. His hair reached his shoulders and was tied in a half pony tail. Most of the hair had slipped away.

"You didn`t bring cigarettes, did you?" Sherman glowered at Chris.

"Uh… Oops…?"

Chris hid behind Clarisse and put his hands on her shoulders, using her as a shield. She just rolled her eyes, sighted and did the familiar "crossed arms" pose.

"Chiron made me do it!"

Sherman was smiling like a psychopath and approaching him when a pale hand stopped him. Will held an almost empty pack of cigarettes with a red lighter in it towards him, the lid open. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief and understanding.

Sherman took a cigarette slowly, as if it was going to disappear any moment, then he tugged out the lighter. When he was done he handed it back with a nod, showing his gratitude, and blew out a gust of smoke. Will lighted up a cigarette too and did a french inhale.

"Thanks, dude, you`re saving me here. I owe ya one." Chris said from behind Clarisse, but was looking at the cancer sticks.

"You want one?"

"Oh, my God! Are you for real?" Chris cried from happiness. Will shrugged.

Now, when the three of them were smoking it became quiet, the only sound coming from the inhales and exhales.

"So, how old are ya?" the hispanic decided to break the ice.

"Eleven."

Chris choked on the smoke and the girl hit him on the back a few times.

"I`m fine, I`m FINE, WOMAN!" he yelled and caught her hand before she hit him for the sixth time. "Eleven? You look like you`re fifteen, dude."

The blonde shrugged and took a deep drag, kept it in as long as he could, then exhaled while looking and the Lake.

"You look like you`re ten, Rodriguez." Clarisse said. That hit a nerve. Chris blew smoke in her face, but she didn`t react. Instead she kicked him in the gut and watched him gasp for precious air. He rested his back on the side of the wooden bridge.

"Dammit." he coughed.

Then they herd the loud music coming from Will`s headphones.

"_No, there is nothing you can do I have not already DONE TO __**MYSELF**__!" _the music boomed and Will made a face before lowering the volume.

"You listen to _"Mindless Self Indulgence"_?" the three of them asked at the same time.

"Uh… yeah." Will raised an eyebrow, his cigarette in front of him like a warning if anybody wanted to charge him, shoulders raised.

"I like him already." Chris grinned again.

"You remember when-" Clarisse started while looking at her older brother with a scary glint in her eyes.

"Ooooooooooh, yeah, I do." Sherman laughed and threw his head back. "We so have to do that again."

"Okay, what am I missing here?"

"One morning, when the little shits were deep asleep we decided that it would be nice of us to wake them up. With music. So one of the songs on the list was "Mindless Self Indulgence – Get it up"." Clarisse snickered. "And "Master Passion Greed"."

"_With awakening, the tears will begin…_" Sherman sang, smoke creeping from his mouth in waves. "What a_ splendid_ morning it was. We`re doing it again." he pointed the cancer stick at his sister.

"You bet." she nodded.

Basically, it was five in the morning and Mr. D was up, so they could stick to the plan, which was – "give the little shits a taste of their own medicine". They had awoken the whole camp in a matter of seconds, but the large music columns were placed around the Apollo cabin. It had been so loud that the glass vibrated. And fortunately didn`t brake. So the bastards didn`t have anything on them.

"I didn`t know that your hatred for the Apollo cabin burned _that _deep." Chris laughed awkwardly, it sounded fake. His hand was raking through his messy hair.

Will took a deep drag, eyes focused on the burning end of the cigarette.

"We`re not allowed to smoke, are we?" he said, voice raspy.

"Who gives a fuck? Legolas here, does it all the time." Sherman said, nodding his head at Chris for emphasis.

"I prefer being Gimli, thank you. Hey, Will, want a tour? Okay! Let`s go!" and like that Chris dragged Will away the same way he had dragged him there in the first place.

The siblings looked at their fading figures.

"Uh… what the hell?" Sherman`s cigarette died completely. "I was just starting to like the guy."

"You? Liking somebody new?"

"It`s not impossible."

"Fine. Then _you _dunk his head in the toilet. I have better things to do." Clarisse marched away leaving behind a confused half-brother.

* * *

Chris left Will in the infurmary after the two hour walk, so they could lose the strench of tobacco.

"_I`m so stupid."_ he nagged himself mentally. _"I`m so STUPID."_

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" he stopped in his tracks and pulled his hair.

"What are you doing?"

"_GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_ he jumped like he was on springs.

Clarisse`s eyes were widened, her hand extended towards him like she was going to touch his shoulder. Or slap him. Or punch him. She was still staring at him like he was an alien in a hula skurt and pink earflaps.

"Are you-"

"Don`t touch me." she backed away from him. "Who knows what you`re infected with." then took another step back. Just in case.

"Will you quit that?" he pushed his hands deep in his pockets.

Something in his eyes made her _look _at him. She knew that he was getting worse again – all of those grins, the loud laughing, as if he wanted to convince _himself_ that he was happy. That and the constant fidgeting, the incessantly touching of old scars and the emptiness that filled his eyes when he thought that nobody noticed. But he was a smart bastard and knew how to cover up his tracks. He was almost "everything proof". Almost.

Nobody was "Clarisse proof".

She continued staring at him. And he finally noticed.

"I don`t have flees if that`s what you`re thinking." he laughed, but Clarisse could see through the façade.

"Or parasites for that matter." he swallowed.

"I`m not an alien, too, you know." his mask was breaking and it was like she was watching cracking glass – little webs everywhere, until it… fell apart.

"I`m not wearing pink either, so you can stop looking at me like I`m some sort of a Barbie." the same way Chris was falling apart.

"What? Did antennas come out of my head or something?" he had strength, she admitted that. But it wasn`t enough, not anymore. She kept her mouth shut.

"Say something." the forced laughing stopped.

"Stop it." he took a deep breath.

"Stop looking at me like that." there wasn`t any trace of a smile left on his face.

"Clarisse." the haunted look reappeared. A second. Two seconds. And it disappeared.

"What are you doing?" his mouth clenched.

"What are you trying to _prove_?" anger swam in his eyes. His eyebrows furrowed.

"Answer me." one second he was just standing there, the next he was gripping her shirt, lifting her from the ground, until she wasn`t touching it anymore.

"_Answer me, dammit!"_ fear was sneaking in between the anger.

His mask finally fell.

As if his eyes cleared and became a deeper brown – mocha brown. Anger was replaced with desperation.

She covered his hands with hers smaller ones. His eyes started filling with liquid. She squeezed tighter. The liquid was on the verge of overflowing. The warmness of her fingers ceased his trembling. A tear slipped. She brought her forehead to his. The tear rolled down his cheek. Their brows rested against each other. A sob rumbled like thunder in his throat. She unclenched her jaw. He inhaled the cold air in his lungs. She closed her eyes. So did he.

"It`s…" she started.

"Don`t."

"It`s going to be-"

"Clarisse, just don`t."

"Alright. It`s going to be alright." he choked on the air he was exhaling. "Not now." her thumb patted his skin. "Not tomorrow." then a second time. "Not in a month." and a third time. "But eventually." and a fourth.

His shoulders shook, his mouth trembled, the tears burned.

"_It hurts."_

She hit her brow with his gently, her grip turned vice for a second, then loosened.

"_I know."_

* * *

Reviews motivate me, you know!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author`s note:** Hey there! Thank you sooooooo much for all of the awesome reviwes! And I`m sorry for taking so long, but school, life and shit happened. Yeah, well, hope you like the new chappie! =) _(btw this is a few hours after the cheesy Chrisse scene)_. Enjoy!

* * *

The sky was grey.

That was something new.

Chris knew that it was always rays of sunshine, a few clouds here and there. It was a bit chilly. Okay, scratch that – it was cold as fuck. He couldn`t feel his fingers . Or his lips. Or his limbs. Or his anything. Brilliant.

"This just can`t get worse." he sighted and dug his hands deeper in his pockets. Then he breathed through his mouth so he could watch the little puffy cloud that formed. And he saw Clarisse. Who was marching towards him. And looked like she was going to stab you to death. So he did what anybody would do and hunched on himself as much as he could, wrapped his hands around his abdomen and made a horrified expression. He closed his eyes tightly and when the footsteps were getting closer to him he yelped out:

"Don`t kill mee!" Chris waited for the impact. But it never came.

He felt the air around him shift and he heard how she bypassed him. He opened his eyes and turned around.

"Hey, C-"

"Piss off." she striked with a rough voice back at him before he finished his sentence, her fists clenched, back straight.

He catched up with her and searched her face.

Clarisse`s eyes were vacant, the bags under them had gotten bigger, her skin was pale and the hollows of her cheekbones were starting to stand out again. Chris finally noticed the backpack over her shoulders. He stepped in front of her, trying to stop her, or at least slow down. She slammed into him and continued walking as if he wasn`t there. Weight loss or no, she was still stronger than Hell.

"Hey!"

The only sounds were from her combat boots and the glacial wind.

Chris was just about to turn her around, but she predicted his move, abruptly turned left and caught his arm. He freezed. One move and she was going to break his arm in several places solely for a moment. He had seen her do it. Twice. Her hold was so powerful, he could feel her blunt nails digging into his skin through the winter jacket. That didn`t even seem possible. Her sudden weight loss didn`t seem possible either. Her mouth was squeezed tight, jaw clenched so tight he could see the veins on her neck standing out. She was taking deep breaths, probably to keep herself from punching him in the face several times.

"You two!" they both turned, seeking the idiot that was getting in their wonderful conversation. "Yeah, I`m talkin` to you!" the sentence sounded as if it was murmured.

In a second Will was to their right, a cigarette sticking from his lips. He lighted it and blew out the smoke of his first drag in their faces.

"Lioness, let him go. Mowgli, say nothing." he pointed the cigarette at Chris for emphasis. He opened his mouth, but Clarisse cut him off.

"You`re the one to talk." she snorted, her eyes now burned. "You`re one of them. So you might as well save your breath and stop wasting your time with us." awkward silence. "Yeah, Chiron told me." she bared her teeth in a familiar snarl.

"Clarisse…" Chris put his hand on her shoulder, but she punched it away and let go of him.

"And you knew from the beginning." something in Clarisse`s eyes made the hispanic boy back away.

"Yeah, but you shouldn`t judge him like that, for all you know he might be different! You`re not even giving him a chance." he grabbed her elbow, not letting her get away.

"I know his siblings well enough to know that even if he doesn`t hate us now, he`ll _despise_ us later, when _they_ come to camp. So why should I waste my breath on something so stupid when I know how things are going to end, huh? Give me at least _one_ reason why I shouldn`t treat him the way _they _treat _us_!" she gestured towards Will who stood still, cigarette in mouth.

"You want a reason? Maybe, because he`s a living person and he doesn`t deserve to be treated that way. You don`t have the right to act like that, heck, you don`t even know him! Just because he`s a son of Apollo doesn`t immediately mean that he`s a dumbass or a "little shit"." Will took a step back.

"I don`t need to know him! He`s one of _them_ and nothing is going to change that. _Nothing_!"

By the time Chris and Clarisse noticed that Will was gone, the blonde was barely visible in the distance.

"Look what you did, you moron." Chris growled and let her go, shaking his head, his eyebrows furrowed, as if he just couldn`t believe what he had witnessed. "How do you live with yourself?" he shook his head again and went after Will.

Clarisse didn`t even look affected of the fight. She continued on walking without turning around. If she had, she would have seen the way Chris was fighting with himself whether or not to follow her.

* * *

Clarisse had her forehead rested on the window of the car. Argus was giving her strange looks from the rear view mirror. She sighted.

"I`m fine." Argus lifted an eyebrow. She glared, but he didn`t back down. "Oi, you`re driving a car, eyes on the road, not on me." he rolled all of his eyes like he was telling her _"I don`t think you`ve noticed, but I have eyes _literally everywhere_, so I don`t think that it`s gonna be a problem, you stubborn kid. "._

"Will you quit that?" the barely perceptible note of oppression in her voice made him look away and concentrate on the road, even if they were the only car on the route.

The whole ride was quiet, filled with tension and barely bearable silence. By the time they were in front of the grey building it was dark. Clarisse immediately got out of the car.

"Don`t wait for me." she said while closing the door. Argus nodded and didn`t drive away until he was sure that she entered the building.

* * *

When Clarisse got inside, the smell hit her and she could barely swallow the bile that was going up her throat. She hated hospitals. One of the reason being the constant stench of detergent. And time seemed to stop. She felt like the white walls were closing around her. But she saw a familiar face in the crowd of people. Rin was the nurse who took care of _her_. She had long red hair that was dyed, made it look like fire that was about to strike you and made her ice blue eyes contrast with it. The pale skin contributed to the whole effect. She was tall and lean with sharp features. And was actually Clarisse`s half – sister.

When Rin saw her, she excused herself from the middle-aged woman she was talking to. She strided towards Clarisse in a fast pace, not that it was hard with her long legs.

"You shouldn`t be here, Clarisse." Rin crossed her arms in front of her chest in the well-known posture. "You do remember what happened last time, right? I had to call Argus at 3am in the effin` morning." as much as she wanted to hide her concern, the blue eyes betrayed her this time.

"I need to see her." Clarisse looked up at her older sibling, her own brown eyes silently imploring. They were standing in the middle of the corridor and a man bumped in her unintentionally. He apologized immediately and left through the exit, his face red, but not from embarrassment, his orbs filled with clear liquid that was running down his face.

Rin`s stoic face cracked and she sighted.

"Come on." she said and lead Clarisse through another long corridor and stopped in front of a white door. She was just about to open it, but paused her palm on the round lock and turned to look Clarisse straight in the eye.

The younger one expected her to say something, but Rin did not speak. It was like she was searching for something and it seemed that she had found it, because she opened the door. She stood aside so Clarisse could enter, then she herself got in and closed the painted in white wood with a soft *click*.

Clarisse simply stared at the woman on the bed. Tubes were sticking out of her body, there was an oxygen mask and a few wires that were sticked under the hospital grown to her chest to monitor the heartbeat. Her arms were bandaged from shoulders to fingertips, the white material was put perfectly, but that was as expected of her sister. The long brown hair was neatly combed and shined in the light of the moon despite the terrible state of the body it belonged to. There was a purple bruise on her left cheek.

Clarisse sat in the blue chair next to the bed. She rested her elbows on her knees and brought her thumbs to her temples to make the headache, that was torturing her for the past few days, stop.

"Her condition hasn`t changed." Rin said after a long pause. She was eyeing the woman on the bed.

Rin was half-japanese, though it wasn`t that visible – her skin was pale, her original hair color was light brown and her eyes were blue. She had lived most of her life in Japan, but she had to move in America for a while, because of the whole "demigod" shit. Then when she left camp she found Clarisse and delayed her departure for a while. Until she knew that her half-sister and her mother were alright she had promised herself that she was going to stay. Yes, the woman in the bed was Raina La Rue.

* * *

Chris waited until he was sure that everybody had left the Arena except "the person" he needed. The moment he saw "the person" he charged him and planted himself in front of the tall mass of muscles. The tall mass of muscles that was pissed. Oh, well, just his luck.

"No." Sherman said.

"Wh- But I haven`t even said anything yet!"

"I know what you want to know and the answer is – NO."

"That rhymed." Chris grinned, but stopped when Sherman took a step forward.

"Don`t talk about _rhymes_ in front of me. Got that?" the threatening glint in those scary eyes had Chris nodding about thirty times before he thought that Sherman got the picture.

"Apollo cabin?" the evil look came back and had him scrambling backwards. "I got it, I got it, no "Apollo cabin" jokes. Ha-ha-ha." he tried laughing in the end, though it didn`t work out as well as he wanted it to. "Okay, okAY, DON`T TOUCH ME!" he turned sideways, crossed his arms in an "X" in front of his chest and raised his left leg to protect his stomach and groin..

"Quit the bullshit." yep, things weren`t looking good for Chris. At all. He regained his normal posture, put all the puerility behind him and straightened his back.

"So, you know too?"

"Ya think?" Sherman rested his sword on his shoulder and slacked a little. "You shouldn`t have done it."

"But why n-"

"Because we both started liking the guy and he`s one of _them_." the taller male looked away, hand clenching around the sword.

"So what? What if he`s one of "them"? " Chris made quotation marks with his fingers. "You shouldn`t discriminate him, just because of his siblings. It`s not fair."

"It`s not my problem. Nothing`s fair. People should learn to live with that." suddenly the sharpness and coldness from their first meeting had returned. "Life`s a bitch. It`s all misery, darkness, foulness, opaque and by the time you realize that helping everybody or trying to understand them isn`t as good as people say, you`re aching from the blood you`ve sweated and you`re drowning all by yourself. We`re born alone and we die alone. That`s how it was, how it has been and how it`ll be. And _you_, Rodriguez, can`t change it." Sherman probably hadn`t noticed that he had let his guard slip, the ice had made way to the burning fire of his heart and his eyes couldn`t hide it anymore.

"As much as you want to." Sherman said and regained his composure. The gates of blazing fire closed with a smack, hiding the havoc that devoured and scathed him. He took the sword off his shoulder and for a moment Chris thought that his head was going to roll on the ground.

Sherman`s gaze was still averted. It was like he was replaying a moment of the past in his head. The strong hand constantly spasmed while holding the handle of the sword. His eyes darkened, mouth became a thin line, brows furrowed. He started breathing fast in a short interval, chest heaving, goosebumps appeared on his skin. The arm holding the weapon shook violently.

"Dude, hey, calm down. You`re gonna have a panic attack." Chris approached Sherman slowly, without sudden movements, with his hands raised where the taller could see them. Not that Sherman was an animal or anything, nope, it was just that Chris preferred to keep his limbs. "You`re having a panic attack. Yep, it`s a-" he continued rambling. One of the things he wanted for Christmas was a filter between his mouth and brain. Better yet, multiple filters.

When there was less that two steps between them Sherman raised his hands, telling the hispanic boy to stop. He lifted his other hand to his chest and fisted it in the material of the T-shirt.

"Not a panic attack. Chest problems." Sherman coughed, the rough sounds made Chris`s throat hurt, even thought it was perfectly fine.

"Shouldn`t you get it checked or something?" the older male coughed a few more times, only this time Chris saw the dark liquid that painted his hand. The scarlet fluid ran down his hands, down his elbow and fell on the ground in little drops. "Uh…. you`re… kinda…." the shorter pointed at the blood. Although Chris had bled a lot in all of the street fights he had participated in his neighbourhood, he still got a little panicked when he saw blood.

"No shit, Sher-" another cough sounded and it made Chris react.

"I`m gonna call Chiron. I`ll be back in a-" the hand that previously fisted in the gray shirt now pulled him back, until there was less than an inch between their faces. The glowing red orbs said everything.

"Or. Maybe not." Chris was just about to open his mouth to say more stupid things and buy time for himself before he turned to mince.

But a grey cloth hit Sherman in the face before that. The taller let him go, grabbed the fabric and yanked it off his face. When Chris saw his face he paled.

"_Shit just got real."_ he said to himself, thinking of a way to save his skin from this massacre.

"Yo." crap. Chris gulped, hunched and set his left leg a step back, preparing himself for a long sprint.

Will stood a good five meters away from them, hands in his pockets, the uninterested look on his face made Sherman bare his canines. The blood that was dripping down his chin had him looking more rabid and livid. And just like it started, his expression was changed to one of surprise. When Chris turned his eyes to Will he saw something that he didn`t expect. The blonde was smiling. A real smile, only it was a closed mouthed one, with wrinkles around his eyes and dimples. It radiated so much warmness that Chris didn`t feel cold anymore.

Sherman still looked taken aback and that mean a lot, because from the few weeks that he`d knew him, Chris knew that Sherman had a good self-control and for him to show amazement was a rarity. He hadn`t moved, the grey cloth was about to fall from his bloody hand. When it started slipping away Will catched it with a quiet laugh. Sherman didn`t move.

The blonde spread the soft fabric over his palm, caught the older one`s bloodied hand. He moved it slowly over the strong arm, with gentle circular motions where the blood didn`t want to go away. Sherman didn`t move.

"Chest?" Will asked without stoping, he only paused for a second to change the side of the grey material to a cleaner one. Sherman didn`t move.

Will raised Sherman` s hand so he could clean his fingers, a concentrated look appearing on his face. Sherman opened his mouth to say somethig, but nothing came out of it. So he closed it. His shoulders relaxed. He didn`t feel that hostility and animosity that usually stirred in him when he was close to Apollo`s kids. There was no urge to gut him or to knock him out just so he could shut up. Not that he talked that much, but that was another matter. He didn`t feel like he had to look behind his back constantly, as if an arrow or a rain of arrows was going to fly towards him and his siblings. He… didn`t hate him. He didn`t hate him. _He_ didn`t hate _him_.

"You okay? Apart the whole "coughing your lungs out" part." Will had cocked his head on one side, bangs almost covering his left eye. When Sherman frowned Will pointed at his whole face and made a few circles with his finger. "You`re red."

Sherman raised his free hand to his cheeks and felt the heat there.

"It`s sunny." he said like the biggest idiot in the universe. Which made him redden more.

Chris laughed his ass in front of him. He had been holding it for a long time now, but he gave up and planted himself on the cold ground, clutching his stomach that hurt from so much mirth. He then raised his teary eyes to Sherman who shifted his head to the right with his mouth in a tight line. It didn`t have the effect he wanted, because in a second that look had Chris shrieking with laughter.

"Idiot." the older one murmured and rolled his eyes.

"Yup."

"Hey!" Chris rested his weight on his elbows and made a funny face.

Sherman`s face didn`t bulge, but his shoulders shook. Will had his back to the hispanic boy so Chris couldn`t see his expression, but the blonde hunched and started shaking too. In a moment the only thing that was keeping him on his feet was Sherman`s hand.

"What are you laughin` at? You weren`t even facing me! " at that Will made a loud laugh and fell on his knees.

Sherman gave up too and voiced out his amusement. When he looked down at his hand he saw that his and the blonde`s hands were clasped together as if they were doing a handshake. The only thing that separated their skin was the thin fabric that was used to whipe his own blood away. He didn`t know whether to interpret this in the literal or in the metaphorical way.

But one thing he knew – he hadn`t laughed this much and so openly for a long time.

* * *

Reviews motivate me, you know!


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